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Earthborn Backgrounds

Scope​

This file owns the Game 1 specific Earthborn background system: the MC originates on Earth (a mundane human from our world, not a native of the setting) and the player chooses one Earth-origin role at character creation. The background shapes traits, skill affinities, starting items, and characteristic play-style biases — not RPG class progression. This file also instantiates the True Harm world-law rule from ud-world-law.md for Earth-origin technology: Earth tools are mundane and follow the same disperse-but-do-not-destroy rule as any mundane weapon. Earth backgrounds do not bypass world-law; they accelerate discovery of True Harm categories rather than substitute for them.

Facts​

Fact: The MC's origin is Earth.​

The MC is a mundane human from our world. They are not a native of the Valenar setting; they have no childhood memory of the continent, no native accent, no shared cultural context with surviving kingdoms, and no mark from the divine layer. Their arrival in the Zone is explained by the Corebound origin (see gl-mc-corebound.md); their skill set is explained by their Earth-origin background.

Canonicity: hard canon for Game 1 Cross-refs: gl-mc-corebound.md

Fact: The player chooses the MC's Earth role at character creation.​

At character creation the player picks the MC's Earth-origin background from a menu. The choice is not cosmetic; it shapes traits, skill affinities, possible starting items, and play-style biases that persist across the campaign. Background selection is a real character-shaping decision, not a difficulty modifier or a flavor tag.

Canonicity: hard canon for Game 1 Exposure note: Surfaced as revealed per lh-game1-world-hooks.md — background selection is a character-creation surface.

Fact: Earthborn backgrounds are trait/affinity clusters, not RPG classes.​

Each background grants a cluster of origin traits and skill affinities (which skills surface earlier or learn faster) without locking a class progression tree. There is no farmer-class advancement path, no soldier-class skill tree; the background biases the start and the early game without dictating the late game. The MC remains a freeform character whose growth is determined by play.

Canonicity: hard canon for Game 1

Fact: The available Earth backgrounds include thirteen examples from the chat brief.​

The Earth-origin backgrounds available to the MC at character creation include: farmer, soldier, mechanic, nurse/doctor, chemist, engineer, programmer, teacher, historian, hunter, construction worker, firefighter, and priest/monk. The list is not exhaustive — additional backgrounds may be added via future content waves; this set is the Game 1 starting roster.

Canonicity: soft canon for Game 1

Fact: Each background grants origin traits, skill affinities, starting items, and play-style biases.​

A background contributes four shaping effects on character creation: one or more origin traits (immutable identity markers per gd-character-skills.md), one or more skill affinities (skills that surface earlier or learn faster), possible starting items specific to the role (mundane Earth-origin objects appropriate to the background), and characteristic play-style biases (the early game shaped by which problems the background recognizes faster). All four contributions stay bounded — backgrounds shape early play, they do not pre-solve mid or late acts.

Canonicity: hard canon for Game 1 Cross-refs: ../../systems/gd-character-skills.md

Fact: Earth-derived tools follow the True Harm rule.​

Mundane Earth-derived tools — knives, blades, mechanical implements, explosives, electronics where applicable — are mundane weapons under ud-world-law.md. They disperse demons but do not destroy demon essence. Earth backgrounds do not grant a bypass to the True Harm requirement. The world-law applies uniformly: only divine-touched, ritually-prepared, or runic-worked methods satisfy True Harm, and those categories must be acquired in-Zone through play.

Canonicity: hard canon for Game 1 Cross-refs: ../universe/ud-world-law.md Exposure note: Surfaced as revealed per lh-game1-world-hooks.md — the player discovers through play that Earth tools fail to destroy demons.

Fact: Earth knowledge can accelerate discovery of True Harm categories without bypassing them.​

Some Earth knowledge — chemistry, engineering, biology, materials science, historical methodology — may help the MC recognize, reverse-engineer, or adapt True Harm categories faster than a setting-native would. A chemist may identify a ritual reagent's chemical role; an engineer may improve a runic-worked tool's mundane mounting; a historian may parse old texts faster. The underlying world-law categories (divine-touched, ritually-prepared, runic-worked) still apply. Earth cleverness accelerates discovery; it does not substitute for the world-law itself.

Canonicity: soft canon for Game 1 Cross-refs: ../universe/ud-world-law.md

Fact: Modern and Victorian technology is bounded; the MC's individual knowledge is the resource.​

Modern, Victorian, or industrial technology is not dominant in Game 1 and must not become so. Earth backgrounds that imply industrial dominance (programmer, engineer, chemist) are bounded by a single rule: the MC's individual knowledge and hand-tool capability is the resource, not an industrial base. There are no factories, no mass production lines, no electrical grids, no firearms supply chains. What the MC remembers and can do with hand tools is the contribution; the world remains medieval high-fantasy.

Canonicity: hard canon for Game 1

Cross-references​

  • gl-mc-corebound.md
  • ../universe/ud-world-law.md
  • ../universe/ul-hero-calling.md
  • ../../systems/gd-character-skills.md
  • ../hooks/lh-game1-world-hooks.md